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Tennyson's Life and 

Poetry: and Mistakes 
Concerning Tennyson 



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By EUGENE PARSONS. 



/ 2.8*7 V 

SECOND EDITION. 
Revised and Enlarged. 



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I8f3 



COPYRIGHT, 1892, 1893, By EUGENE PARSONS. 
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 



Printed by The Craig Press, Chicago. 






INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 



There is already an extensive Tennyson literature. Of books re- 
lating to the scenes connected with his life and works, are Walters' 
In Tennyson Land; Brooks' Out of Doors with Tennyson ; also 
Church's Laureate^s Country, and Napier's Homes and Haunts 
of Lord Tennyson. There is a mass of material, both critical 
and biographical, in Shepherd's Tennysoniana ; Wace's Life 
and Works of Tennyson; Tainsh's Study of the Works of 
Tennyson; Jennings' Sketch of Lord Tennyson\ and Van Dyke's 
Poetry of Tennyson. Besides these may be mentioned Brightwell's 
Tennyson Concordance ; Irving's Tennyson ; Lester's Lord Tennyson 
and 'he Bible ; also Collins' Illustrations of Tennyson. 

iluable help for understanding and appreciating In Alem- 
is afforded by the volumes on that poem written by Robertson, 
, Genung, Chapman and Davidson. Much interesting infor- 
mation is given in Dawson's Study of " The Princess'''' ; Mann's 
Tennyson's "Maud" Vindicated; Elsdale's Studies in the Idyls; 
and Nutt's Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail. A collection 
of Tennyson's songs, set to music by various composers, has been 
issued by Stanley Lucas and by Harper & Bros. 

Several volumes of selections from Tennyson's writings have 
appeared as follows: Ausgezvdhlte Gedichtc, with notes (in Ger- 
man) by Fischer, Salzwedel, 1S7S; Lyrical Poems of Alfred 
Tennyson, with notes (in Italian) by T. C. Cann, Florence, 1887; 
Lyrical Poems of Lord Tennyson, annotated by F. T. Palgrave; 
Select Poems of Tennyson, and Tou?ig Peopled Tennyson, both 
edited by W.J. Rolfe; Tennyson Selections, with notes by F. J. 
Rowe and W. T. Webb; and Tennyson for the Toung, edited by 
Alfred Ainger. 

Among school editions of Tennyson's poems, are The Princess, 
with notes by Rolfe, also by Wallace; Efioch Arden, with notes by 
Rolfe, by Webb, and by Blaisdel ; Enoch Arden, with notes (in 



r 



4 INTRODUCTORY. 

German) by Hamann, Leipzig, 1S90; Enoch Arden, with notes 
(in French) by Courtois, Paris, 1S9 1 ; Enoch Ardeu, with notes (in 
French) by Beljame, Paris, 1S91; Les Idylles du roi, Enoch 
Arden, with notes (in French) by Baret, Paris, 1S86; Enoch 
Ardeu, les Idylles du roi, with notes (in French) by Sevrette, 
Paris, 1S87; Ayl/ner^s Field, annotated by Webb; The Two Voices 
and .1 Dream of Fair Women, by Corson; The Coming of Arthur 
and The Passing of Arthur, by Rowe; In Memoriam and other 
poems, by Kellogg. 

Innumerable papers on Tennyson and his poetry have been pub- 
lished in newspapers and periodicals. A large number of these re- 
views and some descriptive articles are contained in the following 
volumes: Home's Spirit of the Age; Howitth Homes and Haunts 
of British Poets ; Hamilton's Poets-Laureate of England ; Rob- 
ertson's Lectures; Kingsley's Miscellanies ; Bagehot's Literary 
Studies; Japp's Three Great Teachers ; Buchanan's Master 
Spirits; Austin's Poets of the Period; Forman's Our Living 
Poets ; Friswcll's Modern Men of Letters ; Haweis' Poets in the 
Pulpit ; McCrie's Religion of Our Literature ; Devey's Compar- 
ative Estimate of English Poets ; Gladstone's Gleanings of Past 
Tears ; Archer's English Dramatists of To- Day ; Stedman's 
Victorian Poets ; Cooke's Poets and Problems ; Fraser's Chaucer 
to Longfellozu ; Dawson's Afakers of Modern English ; £gan's 
Lectures on English Literature : and Ritchie's Records. 

For favorable or unfavorable estimates of Tennyson, the reader 
is referred to the lectures of Dowden and Ingram in the Dublin 
Afternoon Lectures on Literature and Art, and to the collected 
essays of Brimley, Bayne, Hadley, Masson, Stirling, Roscoe, Hay- 
ward, Hutton, Swinburne, Gallon, Noel, Heywood, Bayard Taylor 
and others. 

Some side-lights are thrown on the Laureate in Ruskin's Mod- 
ern Painters ; Hamerton's Thoughts on Art ; Masson's Recent 
British Philosophy ; and Arnold's Lectures on Translating- Homer. 
Stray glimpses of the man in his personal relations are found in the 
Carlyle and Emerson Correspondence; Fanny Kemble's Records 
of a Girlhood; Caroline Fox's Memories of Old Friends; Reid's 
Life of Lord Houghton ; and in the Letters and Literary Re- 
mains of Edzvard Fitzgerald. 

But with all that has been written concerning Tennyson, no 
monograph, so far as I am aware, has hitherto appeared which is at 
once comprehensive and accurate. Mrs. Ritchie's beautiful portrai- 
ture of the Laureate, with its touch of hero-worship, lacks a great 
deal of being a survey of his literary career. No biography of Al- 



INTRODUCTORY. 5 

frecl Tennyson has been published which is worthy the name. For 
many years students and lovers of the poet encountered difficulty in 
obtaining full and exact information on the chief events of his life. 
I undertook to supply this want in the essay entitled "Tennyson's 
Life and Poetry." 

In the preparation of this paper, I had occasion to consult various 
periodicals and works of reference. With scarcely an exception, I 
:'ound the articles on Tennyson in cyclopedias and biographical dic- 
tionaries faulty in many particulars. Even the sketches in recent 
-compilations and journals are full of misleading and conflicting state- 
ments. I became impressed with the thought that these errors ought 
to be exposed and corrected. The result was the critique — "Mis- 
takes concerning Tennyson." I gathered my materials from a 
variety of sources, and always aimed to disengage the truth. I de- 
pended largely on Rev. Alfred Gatty, Mrs. Ritchie, Mr. Gosse, 
Prof. Palgrave, Prof. Church, Mr. C. J. Caswell, and Dr. Van 
Dyke as the most trustworthy authorities. 

My thanks are due Dr. W. F. Poole, of the Newberry Library, 

for placing at my disposal an immense collection of bibliographies, 

catalogues and bulletins of foreign books. I desire also to express 

my obligations to Dr. Henry van Dyke, of New York City, for 

aiding me in my researches. 

Eugene Parsons. 

3612 Stanton Ave., Chicago, 
April, 18Q2. 

NOTE TO SECOND EDITION. 

Of recent Tennysonian literature, are the following books: 
Waugh's Alfred, Lord Toinyso)i / Jenkinson's Alfreds-Lord Tenny- 
son ; Salt's Tennyson as a Thinker • Jacobs' Tennyson and " In 
Memoriam /" Littledale's Essays on Idyls of the King / also 7 he 
Holy Grail, The Marriage of Geraint, Geraint and Enid, and 
Garcth and Lynette, annotated by G. C. Macaulay. Short studies 
or appreciations of Tennyson and his works are included in Phases 
of Thought and Criticism, by Brother Azarias; Cheney's Golden 
Guess y Mather's Nineteenth Century Poets ; Robertson's Essays 
toward a Critical Method/ Swanwick's Poets as Interpreters of 
their Age/ and Miles' Poets and Poetry of the Century, vol. iv. 

It is with sincerest gratitude that I acknowledge the assistance of 
Dr. W. J. Rolfe, of Cambridge, Mass., and Mr. C. J. Caswell, of 
Horncastle, England ; also my indebtedness to the Chicago Public 
Library for its rare facilities for literary investigation. 
April, iSqj. 



TENNYSON S LIFE AND POETRY. 



i. 

Alfred Tennyson was born August 6, 1S09, in Somersby, a 
wooded hamlet of Lincolnshire, England. "The native village of 
Tennyson," says Howitt, who visited it many years ago, "is not 
situated in the fens, but in a pretty pastoral district of softly sloping 
hills and large ash trees. It is not based on bogs, but on a clean 
sandstone. There is a little glen in the neighborhood, called by the 
old monkish name of Holywell." There he was brought up amid 
the lovely idyllic scenes which he has made famous in the "Ode to 
Memory" and other poems. The picturesque "Glen," with its 
tangled underwcod and purling brook, was a favorite haunt of the 
poet in childhood. On one of the stones in this ravine he inscribed 
the words — Byron is Dead — ere he was fifteen. 

Alfred was the fourth son of the Rev. George Clayton Tenny- 
son, LL.D., rector of Somersby and other Lincolnshire parishes. 
His father, the oldest son of George Tennyson, Esq., of Bayons and 
Usselby Hall, was a man of uncommon talents and attainments, who 
had tried his hand, with fair success, at architecture, painting, music 
and poetry. His mother was a sweet, gentle soul, and exceptionally 
sensitive. The poet-laureate seems to have inherited from her 
his refined, shrinking nature. 

Dr. Tennyson married Miss Elizabeth Fytche, August 6, 1S05.. 
Their first child, George, died iii infancy. According to the parish 
registers, the Tennyson family consisted of eleven children, viz.: 
Frederick, Charles, Alfred, Mary, Emily, Edward, Arthur, Septi- 
mus, Matilda, Cecilia and Horatio. They formed a joyous, lively 
household — amusements being agreeably mingled with their daily 
tasks. They were all handsome and gifted, with marked mental 
traits and imaginative temperaments. They were especially fond of 
reading and story-telling. At least four of the boys were addicted to 
verse-writing — a habit they kept up through life, though Alfred 



TENNYSON S LIFE AND POETRY. J 

alone devoted himself to a poetical career as something more than a 
pastime. Frederick Tennyson's occasional pieces are characterized by 
luxuriant fancy and chaste diction; the sonnets of Charles won high 
praise from Coleridge, but the fame of both has been overshadowed 
by that of their distinguished brother. 1 

The scholarly clergyman, who was an M. A. of Cambridge, care- 
fully attended to the education and training of his children. He 
turned his gifts and accomplishments to good account in stimulating 
their mental growth. Alfred was sent to the Louth Grammar 
School four years (1S16-20). During this time he presumably 
learned something, although no flattering reports of his progress have 
come down to us. Then private teachers were employed by Dr. 
Tennyson to instruct his boys, but he took upon himself for the most 
part the burden of fitting them for college. Only a moderate amount of 
study was imposed by the rector. A great deal of the time Alfred 
was out of doors, rambling through the pastures and woods about 
Somersby and Bag Enderby. He was solitary, not caring to mingle 
with other boys in their sports. As a child, he'exhibited the same 
peculiarities which characterized the man. He was shy and reserved, 
moody and absent-minded. Alfred and Charles were devotedly at- 
tached to each other, and frequently were together in their walks. 
The lads were both large and strong for their age. Charles was a 
popular boy in Somersby on account of his frank, genial disposition — 
which cannot be said of the reticent Alfred. 

One incident connected with the poet's education at home is worth 
repeating. His father required him to memorize the odes of Horace 
and to recite them morning by morning until the four books were 
gone through. The Laureate in later years testified to the value of 
this practice in cultivating a delicate sense for metrical music, in 
which he surpasses Horace. Certainly no other bard has ever ex- 
celled Tennyson in the art of expressing himself in melodious verse. 
From his twelfth to his sixteenth year, Alfred was apparently 
idle much of the time, yet he was unconsciously preparing for hfs 
life-work. He was gathering material and storing up impressions 
which were afterwards utilized. It was with him a formative period. 
The hours he spent strolling in lanes and woods were not wasted. 
The quiet, meditative boy lived in a realm of the imagination, and 
his thoughts and fancies took shape in crude poems. 

This period of day-dreaming was followed by one of marked 



1 Three volumes of verse by Frederick Tennyson have appeared, viz. : Days and Hours* 1 \ 54); 
Isles of Greece ; Sapp/10 and A/cieiis (1890); Daphne, and Other Poems (1891). The published 
works of Charles Turner are as follows: Sonnets and Fugitive Pieces (1830); Sonnets (1864)- 
Stnall Tableaux (1868); Sonnets, Lyrics and Translations, (1873I; Collected Sonnets, Old and 
New (1880). Edward Tennyson (1813-1800) achieved something of a reputation as a versifier; he 
contributed a sonnet to the Yorkshire Annual for 1832. 



8 tennyson's life and poetry. 

intellectual activity. The thin volume — Poems by Two Brothers, 
printed in 1S26, contained the pieces written by Alfred when* he was 
only sixteen or seventeen. It shows that these were busy years. 
The Tennyson youths not only scribbled a great deal of verse — they 
ranged far and wide in the fields of ancient and modern literature. 
Their father had a good library, and they appreciated its treasures. 
In the footnotes of their first book were many curious bits of infor- 
mation, and quotations from the classics. 

The Tennyson children were fortunate in having cultured parents. 
They were favored in another respect. Dr. Tennyson was comfor- 
tably well off for a clergyman. His means — which he shrewdly 
husbanded — enabled the family to spend the summers at Mablethorpe 
on the Lincolnshire coast. Thus Alfred's passion for the sea was 
early developed. For some time it was the rector's custom to occupy 
a dwelling in Louth during the school year. In this way the seclu- 
sion and monotony of Somersby life were broken. The young Ten- 
nysons saw considerable of the world. They were often welcomed 
in the home of their grandmother, Mrs. Fytche, in Westgate Place, 
and occasionally visited the old manor-house of Bayons. Especially 
Charles and Alfred were at times the guests of their great-uncle 
Samuel Turner, vicar of Grasby and curate of Caistor, who after- 
ward left his property and Grasby living to his favorite, Charles 
Tennyson Turner. Such were the experiences of the Laureate's 
youth and childhood, which inevitably influenced his whole life and 
entered into his poetry. He illustrates the truth that a poet is largely 
what his environment makes him. 

Byron exercised a magical spell over him in his teens, and this 
influence is apparent in his boyish lhymes which are tinged with 
Byronic melancholy. Afterwards Keats gained the ascendency. 
As a colorist, Tennyson owes much to this gorgeous word-painter, 
whom he has equaled, if not surpassed, in his own field. 

Alfred, in his boyhood, gave unmistakable indications of genius. 
During his university course at Cambridge, he was generally looked 
upon as a superior mortal, of whom great things were expected by 
his teachers and fellow-collegians. Dr. Whewell, his tutor, treated 
him with unusual respect. 

While at Trinity college (1828-31) he formed friendships which 
lasted till death ended them one by one. It was indeed a company 
of choice spirits with whom Tennyson had the good fortune to be 
associated. Among them were Thackeray, Helps, Garden, Sterling, 
Thompson, Kinglake, Maurice, Kemble, Milnes, Trench, Alford, 
Brookfield, Merivale, Spedding and others. Besides these, he num- 
bered among the friends of his early manhood Fitzgerald, Hare, 



tennyson's life and poetry. g 

Hunt, Carlyle, Gladstone, Rogers, Landor, Forster, the Lushing- 

tons and other famous scholars and men of letters. 

In the companionship of such men, he found the stimulus neces- 
sary for the development of his poetical faculty. They all regarded 
him with feelings of warmest admiration. 1 The young poet had at 
least a few appreciative readers during the ten or twelve years of ob- 
scurity when the public cared little for his writings. He was* en- 
couraged by their words of commendation to pursue the bard's divine 
calling, to which he was led by an overmastering instinct. He could 
afford to wait and smile at his slashing reviewers. Meanwhile he 
profited by the suggestions of his critics. In this respect he presents 
a striking contrast to Browning. He mercilessly subjected his pro- 
ductions to the most painstaking revision. 2 He attempted various 
styles, and experimented with all sorts of metres. Thus he served 
his laborious apprenticeship and acquired a mastery of his art. His 
minent success has confirmed the expectations of his youthful ad- 



e 

mirers 



During his stay at Cambridge, Tennyson met Arthur Henry 
Hallam, a son of the historian. Hallam, who was a young man of 
extraordinary promise, became the dearest of his friends — more to 
him than brother. Their intimate fellowship was strengthened by 
Arthur's love for l he poet's sister. It was his strongest earthly at- 
tachment. In 1830, the two friends traveled through France to- 
gether, and stopped a while in the Pyrenees. On revisiting these 
mountains long afterward, the Laureate, overcome by reminiscences 
of other days, wrote the affecting lines entitled "In the Valley of 
Cauteretz": 

All along the valley, stream that flashest white, 

Deepening thy voiee with the deepening of the night, 

All along the valley, where thy waters flow, 

I walk'd with one I loved two and thirty years ago. 

For all along the valley, while I walk'd to-day. 

The two and thirty years were a mist that rolls away; 

For all along the valley, down thy rocky bed, 

Thy living voice to me was as the voice of the dead, 

And all along the valley, by rock and cave and tree, 

The voice of the dead was a living voice to me. 

In 1S33, the sudden death of Hallam, then Emily's betrothed, 



1 Edward Fitzgerald, in a letter written in 1835,. says: " I will say no more of Tennyson than 
that the more I have seen of him, the mure cause I have to think him great. His little humours and 
grumpinesses were so droll, that I was always laughing . . I felt what Charles Lamb describes, 
a sense of depression at times from the overshadowing of a so much more lofty intellect than my 
own." — Letters and Literary Remains, vol. i. 

2 " Tennyson has been in town for some time: he has been making fresh poems, which are 
finer, they say, than any he has done. But I believe he is chiefly meditating on the purging and 
subliming of what he has already done: and repents that he has published at all yet. Tt is fine to see 
how in each succeeding poem the smaller ornaments and fancies drop away, and leave the grand ideas 
single." — Letters 0/ Edward Fitzgerald, vol. i., p. 21. 

Fxtract from a letter dated October 23, 1833. 



IO TENNYSON S LIFE AND POETRY. 

produced on Alfred's mind a deep and ineffaceable impression. While 
brooding over his sorrow, the idea came to him of expressing his 
emotions in verse which might be a fitting tribute to the ftead. At 
different times and amid widely varying circumstances, were com 
posed the elegiac strains and poetic musings that make up "In Mem 
oriam," a poem representing many moods and experiences. It is a 
work occupying a place apart in literature. Its merits and defects 
are peculiar. There is no other elegy like it, and it may be doubted 
whether a second In Memoriam will ever be written. Tennyson 
erected an appropriate and imperishable monument to the memory 
of his lost friend. In conferring immortality upon his beloved 
Arthur, he gained it for himself. His best claim on the future is to 
be known and remembered as the author of "In Memoriam," his 
masterpiece. 

Equally enduring is the melodious wail — "Break, break, break," 
one of the sweetest dirges in all literature. Hallam was buried (Jan. 
3, 1834) at Clevedon by the Severn, near its entrance to the Bristol 
Channel, within sound of the melancholy waves. Singularly 
this exquisite song, which breathes of the sea, was not composed 
here, but "in a Lincolnshire lane at five o'clock in the morning," as 
the Laureate himself has declared. It was written within a year 
after Hallam's death, Sept. 15, 1S33. 

Not much has been learned of Tennyson's early manhood. No 
very definite picture can be formed of his life after he left college. 
He seldom wrote letters. Even his most intimate friends could not 
succeed in carrying on a correspondence with him. What happened 
to him is not, however, all a blank. A few scraps relating to his 
history are found in the letters of Carlyle, Fitzgerald, Milnes and 
others. A number of autobiographical fragments are sprinkled 
through the poems which he wrote between iS^oand 1850, but they 
refer more to his spiritual development than to the outward events 
which constitute memoirs. 

Mrs. Tennyson continued to live at the rectory after her husband 
died (Mar. 16, 1S31 ). In May, 1837, she removed to High Beech, 
Epping Forest; in 1840, to Tunbridge Wells; in 1S41 to Boxley, 
near Maidstone (where Cecelia Tennyson, in 1842, married Edmund 
Lushington, later Greek professor in Glasgow University); and in 
1844, to Cheltenham. Afterward she made her home at Well Walk, 
Hampstead, with her sister, Mary Ann Fytche. She died Feb. 21, 
1S65, aged eighty-four; her remains lie at Highgate. 

Alfred's university career was cut short by his father's death. 
For some years he remained at home — a diligent student of books 
and a close observer of nature. He roamed back and forth between 



TENNYSON S LIFE AND POETRY. II, 

Somersby and London, alternately in solitude and with his friends. 1 
Fitzgerald tells of his visiting with Tennyson at the Cumberland 
home of James Spedding in 1S35. 

Here Alfred would spend hour after hour reading aloud "Morte 
d' Arthur" and other unpublished poems, which his scholarly friend 
criticized. In 1S3S, he was a welcome member of the Anonymous 
Club in London, and for several years he had rooms in this city at 
various intervals. 2 It was his custom to make long incursions through 
the country on foot, studying the landscapes of England and Wales 
and pondering many a lay unsung. Thus he became familiar with 
the natural features of the places illustrated in his poems with such 
pictorial fidelity and vividness, though not with photographic 
accuracy. 

Through this long period he was unknown to the great world. 
He lived modestly, though not in actual want. His books brought 
him no substantial returns till long after 1S42. There was but little 
left of his patrimony, if any, when he was granted a pension of 
.£200 in 1S45. This timely aid was obtained for him by Sir Robert 
Peel, chiefly through the influence of Carlyle and Milnes. 

Henceforth fortune graciously smiled upon him and made amends 
for past neglect. His reputation was becoming well established, and 
new editions of his poems were being called for. The Queen chanced 
to pick up one of his earlier volumes, and was charmed with the 
simple story of "The Miller's Daughter." She procured a copy of 
the book for the Princess Alice ; this incident, it is related, brought 
him into favor with the aristocracy and gave a tremendous impetus 
to his popularity. After the death of Wordsworth in 1S50, Tenny- 
son was appointed Poet Laureate. Since then he has been highly 
esteemed by the royal family, and has produced in their honor 
some spirited odes and stately dedications. 

The poet married (June 13, 1S50) Miss Emily Sellwood, of 
Horncastle, whom he had known from childhood. Her mother was 
a sister of Sir John Franklin, and her youngest sister was the wife 
of Charles Tennyson Turner. Two or three years they lived at 
Twickenham, where Hallam Tennyson was born In 1S52. To- 
gether they visited Italy in 1S51, and vivid memories of their travels 



1 "Alfred Tennyson dined with us. I am always a little disappointed with the exterior of our 
poet when I look at him, in spite of his eyes, which are very fine; but his head and face, striking and 
dignified as they are, are almost too ponderous and massive for beauty in so young a man; and every 
now and then there is a slightly sarcastic expression about his mouth that almost frightens me, in 
spite of his shy manner and habitual silence." — Fanny Kemble's Records of a Girlhood, pp. 519-20. 

(This entry in Fanny Kemble's journal is dated June 16, 1832. 

2 Fitzgerald, in a letter written in London (April, 1838) says: "We have had Alfred Tennyson 
here; very droll, and very wayward: and much sitting up of nights till two and three in the morning 
with pipes in our mouths: at which good hour we would get Alfred to give us some of his magic 
music, which he does between growling and smoking." — Letters and Literary Remains, vol. i., 
PP 4-'. 43- 



12 TENNYSON S LIFE AND POETRY. 

are recalled in "The Daisy," addressed to his wife. This interesting 
poem, written at Edinburgh, was suggested by the findingfof a daisy 
in a book — the flower having been plucked on the Splugen and 
placed by Mrs. Tennyson between the leaves of a little volume as a 
memento of their Italian journey. The poet's fancy was stirred and 
revived the delicious hours- — 

In lands of palm and southern pine; 

In lands of palm, of orange-blossom, 
Of olive, aloe, and maize and vine. 

Those who arc familiar with Tennyson's poems know how ex- 
alted is his ideal of woman as wife and mother. Lady Tennyson 
seems to have met the poet's exacting requirements almost perfectly. 
What sort of helpmeet she has been he lovingly portrayed in the 
" Dedication," — a tender tribute that was fully deserved. " His most 
lad v-like, gentle wife," Fitzgerald called her. Of superior education 
and talent, she was a worthy companion for an author. A number 
of her husband's songs she has set to music. She has never sought 
public recognition. Content with the round of duties in a domestic 
sphere, she has lived for husband and children. Their married life 
has been exceptionally harmonious. 1 

In 1853, the Laureate's largely increasing income enabled him to 
buy Farringford domain (now over four hundred acres) near Fresh- 
water, Isle of Wight. In the lines, " To the Rev. F. D. Maurice," 
dated January, 2 1S54, the P oet depicts his pleasant life in this de- 
lightful retreat: 

Where, far from noise and smoke of town, 
I watch the twilight falling brown 

All round acareless-order'd garden 
Close to the ridge of a noble down. 

You'll have no scandal while you dine, 
But honest talk and wholesome wine, 

And only hear the magpie gossip 
Garrulous under a roof of pine: 

For groves of pine on either hand, 
To break the blast of winter, stand; 

And further on, the hoary Channel 
Tumbles a breaker on chalk and sand. 

In 1S55, Tennyson received the honorary degree of D. C. L. 



1 Milnes, in a letter dated July 20, 1856, gives this glimpse of the Laureate's domestic life:" He 
is himself much happier than he used to be, and devoted to his children, who are beautiful." — Reid's 
Life of Lord Houghton, Vol. I. 

2 The time of Tennyson's removal from Twickenham to Farringford can be fixed with tolerable 
definiteness. Fitzgerald writes (Oct. 25, 1853): " T am going to see the last of the Tennysons at 
Twickenham;" and again (in December, 1853): " I hear from Mrs. Alfred they are got to their new 
abode in the Isle of Wight " — Litters and Literary Remains, vol. i., pp. 225-6. 



tennyson's life and poetry. 13 

from Oxford. 1 His prosperity continuing-, in 1S67 he purchased an 
estate of about fifty acres near Haslemere, Surrey. Here he built a 
fine Gothic mansion (begun in 1868, finished and first occupied in 
1869), wlv'ch is an ideal residence for a poet. Aldworth, which over- 
looks a lovely valley, is situated far up on Blackdown Heath, in the 
parish of Lurgashall, Sussex, about eighteen miles from the south 
coast. " The prospect from the terrace of the house," says Church, 
" is one of the finest to be found in the south of England." The 
poet thus pictures his summer home for more than twenty years: 

Our birches yellowing and from each 

The light leaf falling fast, 
While squirrels from our fiery beech 

Were bearing off the mast, 
You came, and look'd and loved the view 

Long-known and loved by me, 
Green Sussex fading into blue 

With one grav glimpse of sea. 

In 1SS3, the Laureate had amassed considerable property from 
judicious investments and immense sales of his books — his publishers 
paying him <£\|OCO or more per annum, besides the net proceeds for 
new volumes of poems. In the latter part of this year, he accepted a 
peerage and became Baron of Aldwcrth and Fresh water, Jan. 24, 1SS4. 
He took his seat in the House of Lords, Mar. 1 1, being accompanied 
by the Duke of Argyll and the Earl of Kenmare. In 1S65, he de- 
clined a baronetcy offered by the Queen as a reward for his loyal 
devotion to the Crown, and, in 1S6S, when tendered by Disraeli. 
Whatever distinction may attach to the honorable name of Lord Ten- 
nyson, most of his readers prefer to call him plain Alfred Tennyson. 

Baron Tennyson had a splendid lineage, of which he modestly 
kept si'ent, unlike Bvron. According to a writer in the St. fames'' 
Gazette (Dec. 10, 1SS3), who traced the Laureate's ancestry back to 
Norman times, he descended from an illustrious house of "princes, 
soldiers, and statesmen, famous in British or European Ivstory." 2 
Some of his remote relatives were crowned heads, one of them being 
the celebrated Malcolm III. of Scotland. In his descent "two lines 
are bLnded," s iys Church, "the middle class line of the Tennysons, 
and the noble and even royal line of the D'Evncourts." 

Alfred's grandfather, George Tennyson, was a well-known 



1 Alfred Tennyson was elected a member of the Royal Society (1865V, an honorary fellow of 
Trinity College, Cambridge (1869); an honorary fellow of the Royal Colonial Institute ( 1873); a 
vice-president of the V\ elsh National Eisteddfod (i38l); president of the Incorporated Society of 
Authors ( 1884); president of the Chess Association (1885); honorary member of the Spalding Gentle- 
men's Society (1891); and honorary member of the World's Fair Auxiliary Association (1891). He 
was one of the original members of the Metaphysical Soc : ety, founded in London ( '860); a vice- 
president of the Newsvendors' Benevolent Association; and president of the London Library. 

2 "The Tennysons," writes the poet himself, "come from a Danish part of England, and I have no 
doubt that you and others are right in givin r them a Danish origin. . . . Through my great- 
grandmo'her and through Jane Pits, a still remoter grandmother, I am doubly descended from Plan- 
tagenets (Lionel, Duke of Clarence, and John of Lancaster), and this through branches 1 1 the 
Barons d'Eyncourt." — Atlantic Monthly (March, 1893). 



14 tennyson's life and poetry. 

lawyer and wealthy land-owner of Lincolnshire, who " sat more 
than once in Parliament, representing Bletchingly." Erom his 
mother, Elizabeth Clayton Tennyson, he inherited a valuable estate 
near Great Grimsby, and acquired by purchase, about 1780, Bayons 
Manor (a large estate in the parish of Tealby), and later the adjoin- 
ing domain of Usselby Hall. At his death (July 4, 1S35, a » etl 
eighty-five), he left the Clayton property to the rector's family, and 
it is still (1893) in the hands of Frederick Tennyson. His second 
son, the Right Hon. Charles Tennyson-d'Eyncourt, of Bayons 
Manor, was a man of ability and culture, who held various public 
offices, and represented Lambeth and other boroughs in Parliament 
from 1S1S to 1S52; since his death, in 1S61, the family estate has 
successively passed to his three sons — George Hildeyard, Admiral 
Edwin Clayton, C. B. (1871), and Louis Charles ( 1S90), the present 
inheritor of the d'Eyncourt seat and dignity. 

The poet's last years were saddened by the bereavement of mmv 
old friends and relatives. Septimus Tennyson ( iS 15-1866), Charles, 1 
Mary, 2 Emily 3 and Edward are dead. He suffered a severe blow in 
the death of his second son Lionel, while on the homeward voyage 
from India. 4 He mourns his loss in the touching stanzas — " To the 
Marquis of Dufferin and Ava." 

Lord Tennyson was the recip'ent of many congratulations on the 
occasion of his eightieth birthday, August 6, 1SS9. The same year 
was marked 'by the publication of a new volume of poems, which 
attest that his intellectual vigor was unimpaired by age or bodily 
weaknes c , although his later works show a falling-off in power. 
Time brought the venerable harper clearer spiritual vision, as his 
phy.-ical vitality decayed. The full cup of advanced years was 
needed to effect his complete development. His was the tranquil, 
fruitful oLl age that crowns a well-ordered career. 

During his remaining years, the Laureate's health, though quite 
robust for an octogenarian, gradually failed. In February, 1890, he 
was troubled with a grievous illness, the result of exposure to cold — 
he having persisted in taking his "daily two hours' walk along the 



1 Edward Fitzgerald, in a letter written soon after Charles Turner's death (April 25, 1879) 
says: "Tennyson's elder, not eldest, brother is dead; and I was writing only yesterday to persuade 
Spedding to insist on Macmillan publishing a complete edition of Charles' Sonnets: graceful, tender, 
beautiful, and quite original little things." — Letters and Literary Remains, vol. i , p. 437. 

2 Mary Tennyson (b. Sept. n, 1810) married Hon. Alan Ker, Puisine Judge of the Supreme 
Court of Jamaica; she died at Margate (Apr. 4, 1884), leaving one son. 

3 Emilia Tennyson (Oct. 25, 181 1 ), betrothed to Arthur Hallam in 1831, afterward wedded Capt. 
Richard Jesse, R. N. ; she died at Margate (Jan. 24, 1887), leaving two sons, Arthur and Eustace. 

4 Hon. Lionel Tennyson was attacked by jungle fever during a visit to India, and died on board 
the Chusan, near Aden, April 20, 1886, aged thirty-two. He was a profound student of dramatic 
poetry, and would have won a name for himself in literature. For several years he w-as connected 
with the India office, and prepared a masterly report on "The Moral and Material Condition of India," 
for 1881-2. On Feb. 28, 1878, he married the accomplished daughter of Frederick Locker. The 
eldest of their three sons is tile " goiden-haired Ally " who inspired the well-known verses. 



TENNYSON S LIFE AND POETRY. 1 5 

cliff" in all kinds of weather. It was expected that the poet would 
spend the following winter in the South to avoid the changeful 
climate of the Isle of Wight, hut he recovered sufficient strength to 
remain at Farringford amid the scenes he loved so well. His powers 
of body and mind were well preserved to the last, owing to his 
wonderful constitution and his quiet way of living. 

Lord Tennyson never fully recovered from his sickness of 1S90. 
His physician noticed signs of hisbreaking-up in the summer of 1S92. 
In the latter part of September, he was stricken down with gout and 
influenza, while preparing to return to Farringford for the winter. 
After a short illness, which he bore with his accustomed patience and 
cheerfulness, the end came peaceful and beautiful, Oct. 6, 1S92. 
There was a dignity in his death, as in his life, akin to the stateliness 
of his verse. 

All England and the English-speaking world felt its supreme 
loss. Unnumbered eulogies were written and spoken. By universal 
consent, Alfred Tennyson was thought worthy to rest among his 
honored brethren in the Poets' Corner of Westminster Abbey. A 
large concourse of distinguished people were present at the burial- 
service (Oct. 12), many of whom had known and loved the Laureate. 
They deeply mourned his passing as that of one without a peer 
among living singers. A marked feature of the funeral was the 
singing of " Crossing the Bar," to music by Dr. J. F. Bridge. The 
poet's last verses, " The Silent Voices," were sung with inspiring 
effect — the admirable setting being by Lady Tennyson. These 
beautiful lines, dictated a few days before his death, fitly represent 
the spirit of the author, who was ever restlessly aspiring — 

Forward to the starry track. 



II. 

Tennyson's literary career lasted nearly seventy years, for he was 
a prolific verse writer so long ago as 1S25, when a lad of sixteen. 
His boyish rhymes were published anonymously, along with those 
of his elder brother Charles, in Poems by Two Brothers. The" 
preface or "advertisement" of this precious volume was dated 
March, 1827; the MS. of the poems went to the printer in 1S26. 
For the manuscript the youths were paid fifteen pounds in money 
and five pounds' worth of books; a few months after the Laureate's 
death it was sold (with the receipt) for X4S0. 

In his nineteenth year, Alfred Tennyson composed a labored 
narrative in blank verse, entitled " The Lover's Tale," two parts of 



i6 tennyson's life and poetry. 

which were printed in 1S33, but were immediately withdrawn from 
circulation by the author; in 1S79, the entire poem was given to the 
world in a more finished form, owing to the pirated publication of 
the earlier work. In 1S29, while an undergraduate at Trinity Col- 
lege, Cambridge, he won the chancellor's gold medal for the prize 
poem, "Timbuctoo;" Hallam, Milnes, and Thackeray competed. 

In 1S30, what may be called Tennyson's first book appeared — 
Poems, chiefly Lyrical. This slender volume included (along with 
much rubbish) a few pieces which are perennial favorites with lovers 
of the Laureate's poetry, viz.: "Mariana," "Recollections of the 
Arabian Nights," « The Poet," " The Deserted House," '• The Dying 
Swan," "A Dirge," "Love and Death," and "Circumstance." 
These and some others are highly creditable, considering that they 
were written by a young man of twenty. A number of the poems 
were suppressed in later editions, and among them was one in an un- 
usual vein — "Hero to Leander" — which Emerson thought good 
enough to be inserted in his Parnassus. Another, " The Sleeping 
Beauty," reappeared in 1S42 as a section of "The Day-Dream. " 

Tennyson's second book of Poems, published in the winter of 
1S32-3, was a more ambitious venture. There was nothing in it from 
the 1830 Poems. It contained " The Lady of Shalott," " (Enone," 
and some of his most popular lyrics — " The Miller's Daughter," 
"The Palace of Art," " Lady Clara Vere de Vere," "The May 
Queen " (whose conclusion was Gilded in iS42),"The Lotos Eaters," 
"A D earn of Fair Women," " The Death of the Old Year," « To 
J. S.," etc. Most of the poems in this volume were afterward re- 
written and greatly improved. Its contents, though marred by faults 
of crude taste, possessed in a marked degree the characteristic qual- 
i ies of the Laureate's poetry. Nearly all the lyrics in it have been 
found worthy of a permanent place in the collected editions of his 
writings, but underwent countless changes before they were re- 
published in 1S42, being corrected and polished until they were well- 
nigh perfect from a critical standpoint. 

Except an occasional contribution to the Annuals and other 
literary miscellanies of those days, known as Friendship'' s Offering, 
The Keepsake, etc., nothing from Tennvson's pen was given to the 
public for nearly ten years. Then he issued his Poems in two vol- 
umes, comprising selections from his earlier books, together with 
several new works: " Morte d'Arthur," "Dora," "The Talking 
Oak," " Ulysses;," " Locksley Hall," " Godiva," "The Two Voices," 
1 St. Agnes," "Sir Galahad," "Break, break, break," etc. The 
1S42 edition revealed Tennyson at his best — a mature singer whose 
. i_niiied, harmonious verse compares favorably with the most 



TENNYSON S LIFE AND POETRY. 1 7 

splendid specimens of British lyrical poetry. In later editions new 
pieces were added, viz.: "The Golden Year" (4th ed., 1846); « To 
the Queen," " Edwin Morris," " Come not, when I am dead," and 

"The Eagle" (7th ed., 1851); "To , after reading a Life and 

Letters," and " To E. L., on his Travels in Greece" (8th ed., 18*53). 

Not satisfied to rest content as a lyrist, Tennyson essayed ex- 
tended narrative in " The Princess" ( 1847). The poem was disap- 
pointing, being richer in form than substance. There were numerous 
additions and alterations in the third, fourth, and fifth editions; the 
six intercalary songs were first inserted in the third edition (1S50). 
In 1S50, which is called his golden year, appeared anonymously the 
work that is generally considered Tennyson's masterpiece, " In Me- 
moriam," an elegy in process of growth during the seventeen years 
after the death of Arthur Henry Hallam in 1833. It was hailed with 
joy as the ripest fruit of the author's genius. There was no disput- 
ing his victorious advance as a poet. Canto LIX. was inserted in 
the fourth ( di ion ( 1 85 1 ), and XXXIX. about 1S72. 

With '• Maud," in 1855, a few remarkable lyrics were published, 
such as " The Brook," " The Daisy," and the well-known stanzas 
" To the Rev. F. D. Maurice." The same volume contained two 
memorable patriotic poems (which had previously seen the light): 
"Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington" (1852), and "The 
Charge of the Light Brigade "( 1854). Meanwhile a number of 
fugitive pieces were contributed to Punch and The Examiner, some 
of which were long afterward acknowledged and reprinted in the 
poet's collected works. " Maud " aroused a storm of criticism. Its 
purpose was misconceived, on account of the jingo sentiments and 
hysterical ravings put into the mouth of the morbid hero (who was 
not Tennyson in disguise, but a fictitious character). This poem, 
always a favorite with the author, won its way at last to a generous 
appreciation of its merits. 

Tennyson's position was now secure as the greatest of living 
English poets, yet there was no cessation of intellectual activity. He 
next turned his attention to the composition of those tales which must 
certainly be reckoned the greatest of his literary undertakings — the 
longest of his works, if not the best — " Idyls of the King." Many 
years before he had been attracted by the Arthurian legends, and 
had worked several isolated episodes or pictures into the lyrics — 
"The Lady of Shalott" ( 1S32), "St. Agnes " ( 1837), "Sir Galahad" 
(1S42), "Sir Launcelot and Queen Guinevere" (1S42) — and the 
blank-verse fragment called " Morte d'Arthur " ( 1S42 ), afterward 
incorporated in " The Passing of Arthur." These were preludes of 
the fuller strain. He had then projected a national epic in twelve 



1 8 tennyson's life and poetry. 

books on the mythic King Arthur, but abandoned the idea for a 
while. In the. four idyls — " Enid," " Vivien," « Elaine," and 
"Guinevere" — published in 1S59, he versified disconnected incidents 
from the JMabiuogion and Malory's Morte Darthur. Gaining 
courage, it would seem, from the enthusiastic reception of these 
stories, he attempted to carry out his old plan (perhaps changed 
somewhat) of an Arthuriad. Seeing unused possibilities for vew 
poems in the middle-age romances, he from time to time added other 
tales, making the series named the Round Table, with the introduc- 
tory and closing poems, a complete cycle as follows: The Coming 
of Arthur, 1S69; Gareth and Lynette, 1872; The Marriage of 
Geraint, 1S59; Geraint and Enid, 1859; Balin and Balan, 1SS5; 
Merlin and Vivien, 1S59; Lancelot and Elaine, 1S59; The Holy 
Grail, 1869; Pelleas and Ettarre, 1S69; The Last Tournament, 1S7 1 ; 
Guinevere, 1S59; The Passing of Arthur, 1S69. Probably the 
Arthurian idyls, arranged in this order, do not vary much from the 
poet's original intention. The " Dedication," written after the 
death of Prince Albert, appeared in the new edition of 1862; the 
closing verses, "To the Queen," were added in 1872. About 150 
lines were inserted in the first part of " Merlin and Vivien," in 1S74. 

The volume, Enoch Arden, etc. ( 1S64), contained " Aylmer's 
Field," "Northern Farmer," "In the Valley of Cauteretz," "A 
Dedication," " The Grandmother" (first published in Once a Week, 
July 16, 1859), " v ^ ea Dreams" {Macmillari 's Magazine,] an., 1S60), 
» Tithonus" ( Com/nil Magazine, Feb., 1S60), " The Sailor Boy " 
{Victoria Regia, Dec. 25, 1S61), "Ode" {Fraser*s Magazine, 
June, 1862). In 1865, appeared A Selection from the Works of 
Alfred Tennyson, with seven new poems: " The Captain," "On a 
Mourner," " Three Sonnets to a Coquette," and two " Songs/' 
With "The Holy Grail" (1869), various shorter poems were pi b- 
lished, viz.: "The Victim" (reprinted from Good Words, J an., 
186S), "Wages" {Macmillan? s Magazine, Feb., 1S68), "Lu- 
cretius " {Macmillan 's Magazine, May, 1S68), " Northern 
Farmer" (New Style), " The Higher Pantheism," etc. Three new 
poems — " In the Garden at Swainston," " The Voice and the Peak, 11 
and "England and America in 17S2" — appeared in the Cabinet 
Edition of Tennyson's Works (1S74). 

Then boldly entering the dangerous field of historical drama, Ten- 
nyson became a rival of Shakspeare himself in "Queen Mary" 1 (1S75), 
"Harold" (1876), and "Becket" 2 (1884). Besides these, he wrote 

1 "Queen Mary" (abridged) was produced at the Lyceum Theatre, London (Apr. iS-May 
13, 1876), Miss Kate Bateman playing the part of Mary and Mr. Henry Irving that of Philip. 

2 "Becket" (reduced to four acts and a prologue) was presented on the stage of the Lyceum, 
Feb. 6, 1893— Mr. Irving in the title-role, Mr. Terriss as Henry II., Miss Ellen Terry as Rosajiund, 
and Miss Genevieve Ward as (Jueen Eleanor. 



TENNYSON S LIFE AND POETRY. 19 

three shorter plays or dramatic sketches — "The Cup' 1 (1SS4), 
"The Falcon" 2 (1SS4), "The Promise of May " 3 ( 1886)— and an 
idyllic drama, " The Foresters " * ( 1S92 ). 

As if to prove that his fertility in the province of the lyric was 
not exhausted, the Laureate made fresh incursions into fields of 
poetry long familiar to him, varying his labors on "Queen Mary" 
and other plays with less elaborate performances. Throughout his 
Arthurian romaunts and dramatic productions were scattered many 
exquisite songs. In 1S70, " The Window," a series of bird melodies 
set to music by Arthur Sullivan, was published. During 1877 and 
later years, the Nineteenth Century and other periodicals of England 
and the United States 5 were enriched with minor contributions from 
his pen, afterward republished in book form. These winnowings of 
sonnets and ballads, and other verses, old and new, were gathered 
into the following volumes: Ballads, and Other Poems (1SS0); 
Tires/as, and Other Poems (18S5); Locksley Hall Sixty Tears 
After, etc. (1SS6); Demeter, and Other Poems (1889); The Death 
of (Enone. Akbar's Dream, and Other Poems (1S92). Some of the 
notable poems in these collections are named. In the 1SS0 volume 
are "The First Quarrel;" "Rizpah;" "The Northern Cobbler ; " 
"The Revenge" (1878); « The Village Wife;" " In the Children's 
Hospital;" "The Defence of Lucknow " ( 1 S79) ; "Sir John Old. 
castle;" "Columbus;" "The Voyage of Maeldune; " " De Pro- 
fundis" (1SS0). In the collection of 1885 are " Tiresias ;" " To E. 
Fitzgerald;" "Despair" (1SS1) ; "The Ancient Sage;" "To- 
morrow;" "The Spinster's Sweet-Arts;" "The Charge of the 
Heavy Brigade" (1882); "To Virgil" (1882); " Frater Ave atque 
Vale" (1SS3); "Early Spring" (1SS4); "Helen's Tower" (1S61); 
«■ Hands all Round " (1S52) ; " Freedom " (1884). In the book pub- 
lished the year he became an octogenarian, are the stanzas " To the 
Marquis of Dufferin and Ava; " " Demeter and Persephone;" "Owd 
Roa;" "Vastness" (1SS5); "Happy;" "To Ulysses;" " To Mary 
Boyle;" "The Progress of Spring;" "Merlin and The Gleam;" 
" Romney's Remorse;" "Parnassus;" "By an Evolutionist;" "Far — 



1 "The Cup" (with "The Corsican Brothers ") was produced at the Lyceum (Jan. 3-Apr. 9, 
1881), and (with "The Belle's Stratagem") on alternate evenings with "Othello" (after Apr. 15), the 
128th and last performance being given June 17, 1881 — Mr. Irving as Synorix, Mr. Terriss as bin- 
natus, and Miss Ellen Terry as Camma. 

2 "The Falcon" (with "The Queen's Shilling") was presented at the St. James' Theatre, London 
(Dec. 18, 18-Q-March 5, 1SS0I, with the following cast: Mr. Kendal as Count Federigo, Mr. Denny 
as Filippo, Mrs. Kendal as Lady Giovanna, and Mrs. Gaston Murray as Eli/.abetta. 

3 "The Promise of May" was performed at the Globe Theatre. London (Nov. n-Dec. 15, 1882), 
with Mrs. Bernard-Beere as Dora, Miss Emmeline Ormsby as Eva, Mr Hermann Vezin as Edgar, and 
Mr. Charles Kelly as Dobson. 

4 "The Foresters" was produced at Daly's Theatre, New Vork (Mar. 17-Apr. 22, 1892), Mr. 
John Drew in the role of Robin Hood, and Miss Ada Rehan as Maid Marian. 

g St. Nicholas (Feb., 1880I contained two "Child-Songs. The City Chil 1. Minnie and 
Winnie." The Youth's Companion (1884) published "Early Spring." The New York World printed 
" I he Throstle" before it appeared in The PTeiv Review (( Kt., 1 ). 



20 TENNYSON S LIFE AND POETRY. 

far — away;" "The Throstle;" " Crossing the Bar." In the post- 
humous volume, besides the title-poems, are "St. Telemachus;" "Doubt 
and Prayer;" " God and the Universe;" " The Church- Warded and 
the Curate;" "Riflemen, form" (1859); The Silent Voices." 

This meagre outline, which gives little besides the dates and titles 
of Tennyson's more important writings, leaves much untold as to the 
progress of his fame. The volumes of 1S30 and 1S32 received little 
attention from the critics, although a few criticisms, friendly and 
savage, appeared in some of the literary journals and reviews of the 
time. They found but few readers and purchasers. 

The publication of Tennyson's Poems (1842), in two volumes, 
-was greeted with universal praise. The atmosphere of these poems 
was the atmosphere of the new England. Alfred Tennyson found 
himself living in a transitional epoch. He became the exponent of 
its questioning, wistful mood and its "larger hope." As voice and 
interpreter of the age, the star lately arisen above the literary horizon 
was haded with delight. His verse reflected its spirit of unrest and 
change, of introspection and aspiration. The critics of Great Britain 
and America (of those in the United States were Poe and Margaret 
Fuller) saw the high worth of his poetry, and his success was assured. 
This was but the beginning of a series of triumphs. 

That Tennyson was growing popular is plain from the increased 
sale of his books. He expressed the thoughts and feelings of the 
masses as well as of the cultured. The second edition of his Poems 
appeared in 1S43; the third, in 1845; the fourth, in 1S46; the fifth, 
in, one volume, in 1848; the sixth, in 1S50; the seventh, in 1S51; 
the eighth, in 1S53; and the sixteenth, in 1S64. An American re- 
print was issued in Boston not long after 1842, largely through 
Emerson's influence. Like Carlyle and other British authors, Ten- 
nyson found a larger audience abroad than at home. Some of his 
poems became classics during his lifetime. They •were studied in 
the schools, not only of England, America, and India, but of Ger- 
many, France, and Italy. They were translated into nearly all of 
the languages of Europe, and scholars produced numerous versions 
of his best known works into Greek and Latin. 

Tennvson's first long poem sold so rapidly that a second edition 
was reached in 1S4S; the third edition of " The Princess " was pub- 
lished in 1S50; the fourth, in 1S51; the fifth, in iS53;and the twelfth, 
in 1S64. The success of " In Memoriam " was immediate — three 
editions being called for in 1S50; the fourth, in 1S51; and the fif- 
teenth, in 1S64. " Maud" was not so successful, although a second 
edition was required in 1856, and the sixth in 1S64. The appearance 
of "Idyls of the King," in 1S59, can be described as a literary sensa- 



TENNYSON S LIFE AND POETRY. 21 

sation — ten thousand copies being sold within six wee.cs; several 
translations into German were made years ago, and (entire or in 
fragments) into French, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, Spanish, and Italian. 
Judging from the large number of translations and editions (some of 
them illustrated) of " Enoch Arden," this poem has been the most 
widely read of the Laureate's writings in European countries. 

Tennyson's fame was now international, and his books sold by 
the hundreds of thousands, in the original and foreign tongues. 1 
When The Holy Grail, and Other Acw.v was announced in 1S69, 
forty thousand, copies were sold in advance. The dramas did not 
achieve the success of some of his other works in popular estimation, 
but the book of ballads that came out in 1SS0 aroused anew public 
interest. Special mention shou'd be made of " Locksley Hall Sixty 
Years After," whose publicati< n in 1SS6 caused such great excite- 
ment throughout the reading world. The en' ire poem was cabled 
under the Atlantic, and immediately printed in the leading news- 
papers. It called forth a great deal of discussion and criticism 
being the subject of many articles and editorials in all the prominent 
journals and periodicals of this country and England. The work of 
only one living bard could attract such widespread attention. An 
enthusiastic reception was accorded the volume published in Tenny- 
son's eighty-first ) ear — Demcter, and Other Poems. It is said that 
twenty thousand copies were sold within a week. His last books, 
The Foresters and The Death of G£,none, were notable successes. 

Tennyson cannot be ranked with the world-poets. He is, how- 
ever, read more on the Continent than are many other bards of 
England. Mention cannot be made here of innumerable fugitive 
translations of his minor poems and extracts from his longer works 
that have appeared in foreign books and journals in critical and bio- 
graphical articles on the man and his poetry. In Germany, his fame 
began years ago. In 1846, a work was published in Stuttgart con- 
taining several translations of his earlier poems by Ferdinand Freili- 
grath. Among the pieces chosen by this eminent litterateur was 
" Locksley Hall," and Freiligrath's superb version of this striking 
lyric remains to this day the best that has been clothed in Gothic 
dress. A few years later, a book of Tennyson selections, edited by 
Dr. Heinrich Fischer, was printed for schools in Germany. About 
the same time (1853) appeared a miscellaneous collection of his 
poems, translated by Hertzberg. This was followed by other trans- 



1 The fir>t collected edition of Tennyson's poems to appear in England was issued, in six vol- 
umes, by Strahan & Co. in 1872-3. The Cabinet Edition, complete in one volume, was published by 
H. S. King & Co. in 1874. A revised edition of Tennyson's complete works, in one volume, was 
published by Macmillan & Co. in 1884. Numerous reprints have since appeared. This is the only 
authorized text, and contains innumerable variations (not all for the better) from readings in early- 
editions of his poems. Xo student of the poet should be without it. 



FK - S LIFE .\ND FOETRY. 

latic s of s 5 1 son's 1 Sti nann, by Fe.dinann, 

g :rd — many of the pit [ ig in the original metres. 

jlis —ed in the T : 

>n of Br -. sele< 

F. H. A _ - 

- n of Ten- 

Englisl inted in 

as of ought out in 

I -■". . s in i860, nothing of later 

1 1 has • e of . Tennyson's 

1S67 j unted to 5000 copies in 

in, and Portugal. From this showing it would seem 

that the e had no small following of admirers in the Latin 

In Italy, he was welcomed -with marked honor. Indeed. 

nyson may be called a popular poet in the land of Dante and 

Of those who ed their hands at putting his poems 

intc rini, Biagi, C merini, Rod- 

riquc d others. They have been highl 

- should be called paraphrases or imitations — 
being far from close renderings. The choice of such poems as 

en," "The rhc Charge of the 

Light Brigade." '-Rizpah." -Te First Q ad other favoi 

English readers _ e Italians an ade- 

quate impression of the Laureate's transcendent [rifts s a lyric 
?:rel. One trans! leserves particular notice, Carlo Faccioli, 

- ;f Tennyson fill a volume, including 

■• Zr e::::re and leng: cts from U Q - 1 \ -.*' 

- h is the record of a master-spirit in the realm of song. It is 
:ilv a few modern poets, and « not surpassed bv 

anv other English singer of the last half -century. Tennyson's fame 
represents the results of life-long ac:: ity. Seldom has an author 
wrought with such u: . .. ".g patience, and seldom has one added 
so rich treasures to the world' s -essions. The number 

of his meritorious performances is simply astonishing. Not m 
poets can present as imposing a catalogue of works that are con- 
edly of such an -. : excellence. Browning has 

more, but Browning has not taken the trouble to perfect 
self in form: in short, he is not a finished artist. In poetic work- 
manship. Tennvson stands supreme. It is univc Emitted that 
none of his contemporaries ranks so high as man of letters. He is 
brightest ornament of the Victorian reign. 



MISTAKES CONCERNING 
TENNYSON. 



A STUDY IN CONTEMPORANEOUS BIOGRAPHY. 

'•Alfred Tennyson was born August 5, 1S09, at Somersby. a 
hamlet in Lincolnshire, England, of which, and of a neighboring 
parish, his father, Dr. George Clayton Tennyson, was rector. Tbe 
poet's mother was Elizabeth, daughter of the Rev. Stephen Fytche, 
vicar of Louth. Alfred was the third of seven sons — Frederick, 
Charles, Alfred, E I ward, Horatio, Arthur, and Septimus. A 
daughter, Cecilia, became the wife of Edmund Law Lushington, 
long professor of Greek in Glasgow University. Whether there 
were other daughters, the biographies of the poet do not mention."' 

This is the opening paragraph of the Introduction to a school 
edition of " The Two Voices " and " A Dream of Fair "Women," by 
Dr. Hiram Corson. Here are several inaccuracies as to the Tenny- 
son family and the poet'-^ birthdav, and the same mistakes and others 
are found in nearly all the sketches of the Laureate in periodicals 
and works of reference. 

It is generally supposed that cvclopedia articles are prepared by 
specialists who know what they are writing about. This is the popu- 
lar conception, but this is evidently not the case in regard to Tenny- 
son, who has fared sadly at the hands of his biographers. The brief 
accounts of his life given in Appleton's, the Americanized Britannica, 
and other cvclopedias fairlv bristle with blunders and objectionable 
features. As they stand, most of these articles are utterly untrust- 
worthy. Their assertions are often misleading, or so vague as to be 
practicallv valueless. As a result, most people are more or less at sea 
in regard to Tennyson chronology. 



24 MISTAKES CONCERNING TENNYSON. 

Dr. Tennyson and Family. 

A multitude of errors have been perpetrated about Dr. Tennyson 
and family. We are told that Bayons Manor was his native place, 1 
and that he was " rector of Somersby and vicar of Bennington and 
Grimsby." 2 One writer uncritically imagines him a doctor of 
divinity. 3 According to some questionable authorities, he died 
"about 1830; " 4 "in 1830;" 5 "about 1S31;" "on the iSth of 
March, 1S31;" 7 and in iS32. s Mrs. Tennyson is said to have died 
"in her eighty-first year;" 9 also in her eighty-fourth year." 10 

The number of sons and daughters in the Tennyson household is 
rarely given correctly. Alfred is called, in a hit-or-miss fashion, one 
of three, four, six, seven and eight brothers. His sisters are vari- 
ously reckoned as one, three, four and five. 

Rev. George Clayton Tennyson was born at Market Rasen, Dec. 
10, 1778. He graduated at St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1S01 ; 
he received the degree of M. A. in 1805, and of LL.D.in 1S13. He 
married (Aug. 6, 1S05) Elizabeth, daughter of Stephen Fytche, 
vicar of Louth, who died in 1.799. ^ e move d to Somersby in 1S08, 
where he was rector from June, 1S07, until his death. Dr. Tenny- 
son was rector of two other parishes 11 — Benniworth (1S02) and Bag 
Enderby (1S07) — and vicar of St. Mary at Great Grimsby (1S15); 
he died Mar. 16, 1S31. The poet's mother died Feb. 21, 1S65, in 
her eighty-fifth year. 

Alfred Tennyson was the fourth of eight sons — George (who 
died in infancy), Frederick (1S07), Charles (iSoSj, Alfred (1S09), 
Edward (1S13), Arthur (1814), Septimus (1S15), Horatio (1S19). 
The sisters were Mary (18 10), Emilia ( 1S1 1 ), Matilda (1816), and 
Cecilia (1S17). Except George and Frederick all of them were born 
at Somersby. 

* Alfred's Birthday. 

The discussion as to the poet's birthday is now practically at rest, 
his lordship himself having authoritatively settled the matter. 



1 Walters' in I'ennyson Land, p. 62. 

2 Appleton's Cyclopedia, vol. xv., p. 651. 

3 Johnson's Cyclopedia, vol. vii., p. 755. 

4 Ibid. 

5 J. H. Ward, in Atlantic Monthly, Sept., 1879. 

6 Encyclopedia Americana, vol. iv., p. 660. 

7 J. A. Graham, in Art Journal, Feb., 1891. 

8 Lodge's Peerage (1888), p. 597. 

9 Art Journal, Feb., 1891. 

10 Atlantic Monthly, Sept., 1879. 

11 Somersby and Bag Enderby (half a mile apart) are joined in one living; Benniworth is twelve 
miles, and Great Grimsby about twenty, north of Somersby. Dr. Oliver, the noted Lincolnshire anti- 
quary, was Dr. Tennyson's curate at Grimsby. 

" Not far from the south-eastern extremity of this Wold country," says Church in The Laureate's 
Country, "is the little village of Somersbv. The nearest town to it is Horncastle, which is six 
miles to the south-west. . . . The gazetteer states that it contains 6co acres aad a population of 
forty-three." It is a quiet hamlet about a dozen miles from the coast. 



MISTAKES CONCERNING TENNYSON. 25 

Would that he would enlighten us on some other perplexing points 
in his history! Mrs. Tennyson kept August 6 as Alfred's birthday. 
Tourists who have hastily examined the parish registers of Somersby 
have mistaken the figure 6 for a 5, owing to the fading of the ink 
" at the back, or left, of the loop." 1 But careless hackwriters, de- 
pending upon the compilations published decades ago, continue to 
assert that the Laureate was born August 5 ; 2 April 9, 3 or April 6.* 

Year of Tennyson's Birth. 

In Welsh's English Literature is a " biography " of Tennyson 
which says, amid various other slips, that he was born in 18 10. 
Allibone's Dictionary of Authors (p. 2371) is a year out of the way. 
When this ponderous work was first published, not much was 
definitely known of the poet, but Alden's Cyclopedia of Literature 
(1S90), and other unreliable authorities put 1S10 or 1S11 as the year 
of his birth. 

In the parish registers of Somersby, Dr. Tennyson's handwriting 
records Alfred's birth and baptism among the entries of 1S09. Here 
is an instance where one can put to flight a host — for the names of 
those who assign 1S10 as the year of the poet's birth are legion. 5 

Tennyson's Schooldays. 

There is a want of precision in many of the s'atements that have 
been made by Tennyson's biographers concerning his school days. 
In the Encyclopedia Americana (1SS9), vol. iv., p. 660, Dr. C. E. 
Washburn says Alfred " attended for a time Cadney's village school, 
and for a brief period the grammar-school at Louth," — which is 
partly true, but curiously misrepresents the matter. He was a pupil 
in Louth Grammar School four years ( 1S16-20) — not a very "brief 
period." Howitt and others make the length of time "two or three 
years," and some have the mistaken impression that he passed some 
time in Cadney's school before he went to Louth. Cadney came to 
Somersby about 1820, and, in the autumn of the next year, he in- 
structed the Tennyson boys in arithmetic at the rectory. Cook er- 



1 C. J. Caswell, in Notes ami Queries, March 14, 1891. Van Dyke's Poetry 0/ Tennyson, 
p. 323. 

2 Dawson's Makers of Modern English, p. 169. 

3 The Graphic, (Chicago), Nov. 14, 1891. 

4 The Tribune, (Chicago), March 26, 1892, p. 14. 

5 Jenkins' Handbook of British and American Literati/ re, p. 400. Emerson's Parnassus, 
p. xxxiii. FriswelFs Modern Men of Letters, p 152. Collier's History of English Literature, p. 472. 
Angus' Handbook of English Literature, p. 274. Fogh's Nordish Con.-Lex., vol. v., p. 665. 
Hoefer's Nouvelle Biog. Gen., vol. 44. Lorenz' Cat. Lib. Fran., vol. vi., p. 607. Bleibtxeu'; 
Geschichte Eng. Lit., p. 364. Fischer's Ausgeunihlte Gedichte v. A Tennyson, p. 1. Waldmuller- 
Duboc's Freundes- A'lage, p. 6. Faccioli's A. Tennyson — Idilli Liriche, etc., p. ix. 



26 MISTAKES CONCERNING TENNYSON. 

roneously supposes that Charles and Alfred were at Louth in 1S27. 1 
There has been considerable guessing as to the time when Ten- 
nyson went to Cambridge. He is said to have entered Trinity 
College in 1S26;- in 1827 ; 3 about 1S27; 4 in 1S29;"' and "early 
in iS2o,." b There is no occasion for such inderiniteness. To be 
exact, Alfred became a student of Trinity in October, 1S2S. 7 He 
left college without graduating, at the time of his father's death. 
His brothers, Frederick and Charles, finished the course in 1S32. 

COINCIDENCES. 

The cyclopedias also present numerous examples of coincidences 
as well as variations — some of the incorrect details being repeated 
almost verbatim, as though successive compilers had copied over and 
over the mistakes of their superficial predecessors. This ought not 
to go on forever. 

The sketches of Tennyson in Lippincott's Biographical Die- 
tionary (1SS5) and in the Americanized Britannica ( 1S90) may be 
taken as samples. In the following sentence from Lippincott's the 
writer manages to make five or six misstatements: 

"In 1S51 he succeeded Wordsworth as poet-laureate, and about 
the same time he married, and retired to Faringford, in the Isle of 
Wight, where he resided until 1S69, when he removed to Petersfiekl, 
Hampshire." 

In the biographical supplement of the Americanized Britannica, 
this becomes two or three sentences, viz.: 

"He was made poet-laureate in 1851. It was about this time, 
too, that Tennyson married, returning to Faringford, in the Isle of 
Wight, where he lived until 1S69 . . . It was in this year the 
poet moved from the Isle of Wight and took up his residence in 
Petersfiekl, Hampshire." 



1 Poets and Problems, p. 73. 

1 am indebted to Mr. C. J. Caswell for his thorough investigations of Tennyson's boyhood. See 
Pall Mall Gazette, June 19, 1890. 

2 Brockhaus' Conversations-Lex., vol. xv., p. 559. 

3 Lives 0/ English Authors (1890), p. 308. 

4 Johnson's Cyclopedia, vol. vii., p. 755. f 

5 Cook's Poets and Problems, p. 73. 

6 Cassell's Lib. Eng. Lit., Shorter Poems, p. 465. 

7 Church's Laureate ' s Country, p. 74. Van Dyke's Poetry of Tennyson, p. 323. 

Frederick Tennyson (a co-heir of the Earls of Scarsdale) was born at Louth, June 5,1807. He 
was educated at Eton and Cambridge (entering Trinity in 1827) where he distinguished himself by 
writing Greek verse — winning the prize for a Sapphic ode on "Egypt" in 1828. He married an Italian 
lady, Maria Guiliotta (now dead), the mother of his two sons— Julius and Alfred — and three daugh- 
ters — Elise, Emily, Matilda. For many vears he lived in Italy; since 1859, ne nas chiefly resided in 
Jersey, devoting his leisure to poetry aid his favorite Hellenic studies. 

Charles Tennyson Turner (July 4, 1808- \pr. 25, 1879) attended Louth Grammar School (1815-21); 
fitted at home for Trinity (1828-32), where he did admirable work in the classics — obtaining a Bell 
Scholarship. He became vicar of Grasby (Oct., 1835), where he was beloved as pastor the greater 
part of his life; married (May 24, 1836) I ouisa Sell wood; died at Cheltenham. About 1835, he took 
the name of Turner, having inherited the Grasby living and Caistor house of his great-uncle, Rev. 
S. Turner (died 1833 or 1834). 



MISTAKES CONCERNING TENNYSON. 2J 

There are similar passages in Appleton's and Johnson's cyclo- 
pedias. It is perfectly plain that there was not much independent 
investigation in these unscholarly performances. 

MISTAKES. 

Mistake No. i: Tennyson received the Laureateship in 1850, 
the year of Wordsworth's death. Mistake No. 2: he was married 
June 13, 1850. Mistake No. 3: Farringford is misspelled. Mistake 
No. 4: the Laureate lived at Twickenham three years after his mar- 
riage. Mistake No. 5: in 1S53, he bought and first took possession 
of Farringford, which remained his winter residence until 1S92. 
Mistake No. 6: in 1S67, the poet purchased the Greenhill estate in 
the northern part of Sussex, and, in 1868, built Aldworth; this house, 
first occupied in 1S69, was his summer home until 1892. : 

The story of Tennyson's Petersfield establishment may be classed 
as a myth, though supported by several monuments of research called 
cyclopedias. 2 Nothing is said of a Hampshire home in Jennings' 
Life of Tennyson, in Church's. Laureate's Country, or in Van 
Dyke's admirable book on the Poetry of Tennyson / no reference to 
it is found in the essays on Tennyson by Mr. Edmund Gosse and 
Mrs. Anne Thackeray Ritchie. Nor is Lord Tennvson's name 
found in the list of land owners of Hampshire, in VValford's County 
Ta?nilies of the United Kingdom. One is puzzled to understand 
how such a report started. 

Tennyson's elevation to the peerage. 

It is rather surprising to read in the People's Cyclopedia, John- 
son's, Lippincott's, and elsewhere, that Tennyson was raised to the 



1 "In 1872, Mr. Tennyson purchased a small estate on the top of Blackdown." — Laureate's 
Country ,ch. XVI. On the other hand. Anne Gilchrist {Life and Writings, p. 171), in a letter of 
July 7, 1867, writes of the purchase of Greenhill: 

"It is a wooded hollow in Blackdown (south side near the top) at once very sheltered, for the 
hill curves round on either side and rises sheer behind it to the north, so that it is like a little bay; yet 
elevated, very near the top of Blackdown, and commanding the view you know well, Surrey, Sussex 
and parts of Hampshire and I suppose parts of Kent, South Downs. Surrey Hills spread out before 
you: I saw the sea distinctly from what will be their lawn and three shipson it through the gap in the 
downs by Little Hampton. . . . I do think if ever there was a place made for a poet to live in 
this Green Hill, as it is called [now changed to Aldworth] is the spot. Thirty-six acres — half coppice 
above, three large fields and little old farmhouse below. . . . Tennyson was so pleased; a sort of 
child-like glee that is beautiful; contrasting curiously enough with his saturnine moods." 

The following passage is found in a letter of Milnes', dated July 30, 1867: 

"Our expedition to Tennyson s was a moral success, but a physical failure. . . . The bard 
was very agreeable, and his wife and son delightful. He has built himself a very handsome and com- 
modious house in a most inaccessible site, with every comfort he can require, and every discomfort to 
all who approach him. What can be more poetical?" 

Reid's Life of Lord Houghton, Vol. II., page 176. 

Undoubtedly Milnes' biographer misread the date. 

2 Johnson's Cyclopedia, Vol. VII., page 755. 
Appleton's Cyclopedia. Vol. XV., p. 652. 
Meyer's Kon.-Lex., vol. XV., p. 589. 

Hart's Manual of English Literature, p. 509. 

Jenkins' Handbook of British and American Literature, p. 401. 



28 MISTAKES CONCERNING TENNYSON. 

peerage in 18S3 or 18S5 as " Baron d'Eyncourt," " Baron Tennyson 
d'Eyncourt," etc. This he cannot properly be called, though a de- 
scendant from the ancient house of d'Eyncourt — which long ago 
ceased to be a barony. The pedigree of Alfred's grandfather, who 
belonged to the Yorkshire and Lincolnshire gentry, is traced through 
ten generations to Edmund, Duke of Somerset, and two centuries 
further back to Edward III.'s fourth son, John of Gaunt. Dr. Ten- 
nyson dying vitd fiatris, the d'Eyncourt seat and dignity passed to 
his younger brother Charles. The poet's cousin Louis is the present 
possessor of the family estate of Bayons Manor (1S92). The Patent 
creating Alfred Tennyson a peer of the United Kingdom, by the 
name, style and title of " Baron Tennyson of Aldworth in Sussex, 
and of Freshwater in the Isle of Wight," is dated Jan. 24, 18S4. He 
took his seat in the House of Lords, Mar. 11, 1S84. 1 

LAPSES IN ENGLISH GEOGRAPHY. 

A common error is that of locating Aldworth in Surrey. It is in 
Sussex. According to Murray's Handbook for Surrey (ed. of 
1S8S, p. 1S2), and other excellent authorities, 2 Aldworth is in the 
county of Surrey — not far from the northern borders of Sussex. In 
Walford's County Families of the United Kingdom, p. 1203, Lord 
Tennyson's name occurs among the land owners of Surrey — not 
with those of Sussex. 

Somersby and Somerby have been mixed by many people who 
are not familiar with English geography. The latter village is in 
the western part of Lincolnshire, near Grantham — a considerable 
distance from Alfred Tennyson's birthplace. Duyckinck, in his 
Eminent Men and Women, recklessly says he was born at " Som- 
erby, a small parish in Leicestershire." 3 

If Europeans are guilty of crass ignorance of the United States, 
Americans too are open to criticism for their hazy notions of foreign 
places. An inexcusable blunder is that in Phillips' Popular 
Manual of English Literature, vol. II., p. 497, where Blackdown 



1 London Times, March 12, 1884. An item in the Chicago Herald, April 5, 1892, refers to 
Tennyson as "Baron d'Eyncourt." Thus he is called in Lizvs 0/ English Authors (1890) . His 
title is given as " baron Tennyson d'Eyncourt d'Aldworth," by Larousse {Dictionnaire Universe/, 
2d. Supplement, p. 1914); and as "Baron Tennyson von Altworth," by Brockhaus ( Con. -Lex., vol xv., 
p. 550), and by Meyer (Kon.-Lex., vol. xv., p. 589). The I/lustrirtes A'on.-Lex., says he was offered 
a Baronetcy in 1875. The International Cyclopedia says he was made a baron in 1883, as does Al- 
den's Cyc. 0/ Univ. Lit. and other compilations. From this showing it would appear that French 
and German erudition is about on a par with English and American. 

2 Mrs. Ritchie on "Alfred Tennyson," in Harpers Magazine (Dec, 1883), and Alice Maude 
F'enn on "The Borderlands of Surrey," in The Century (Aug., 1882). 

3 Of the numerous works of reference which give Somerby as the poet's birthplace, are the 
following: Vapereau. Dictionnaire des Contemporains: Larousse. Dictionnaire Universel du 
JCIXe Siecle. 2e. Supplement; Schem. Conversations-Lexicon; Meyer. Cotiversations-Lexicon ; 
Brockhaus, etc. 



MISTAKES CONCERNING TENNYSON. 29 

is loosely referred to as " a hill in the vicinity of Petersfield, Hamp- 
shire." Another writer is remiss in accepting statements implicitly 
and without question. A footnote in Kellogg's school edition of 
"In Memoriam,"p. 23, says "Hallam was buried in Cleveland Church 
on the Severn, which empties into British Channel." If he had 
looked up the town for himself in Somersetshire on the map of Eng- 
land, he would have discovered that Clevedon, the burial-place of 
Hallam, is situated on the south eastern bank of the Severn near its 
entrance to the Bristol Channel. 

VARIOUS ERRORS. 

It would hardly be worth while to try to enumerate all of the mis- 
takes that I have come across in my reading relating to Tennyson 
and his works. For the sake of brevity, I merely correct a few of 
them without giving full particulars and references in every case. 
The Tennysons left Somersby for their new home in 1S37 — not m 
1835. Alfred first visited the Pyrenees (with Arthur Hallam) in 
1S30 — not in 1 S3 1 or 1S32; the second visit was in 1S61 — not in 1S62 
or 1S64. He received the degree of D.C.L. in 1S55 — not in 1859 or 
1865. His son Hallam was born at Twickenham, Aug. 11, 1852; 
Lionel at Freshwater, Mar. 16, 1S54. 

Tennyson did not write " Break, break, break " at Clevedon or 
Freshwater. The intercalary lyrics of " The Princess" were first 
published in the third edition — not in the second. The plot of "The 
Cup" is taken from Plutarch's treatise De Mulierum Virtutibus ; 
this work has been confused by Archer and Jennings with Boccaccio's 
De Claris Mulicribus. 

Many unpardonable mistakes have been made in dating Tenny- 
son's published writings, also in wording and punctuating their titles. 
It has been said that "The Princess" first appeared in print in 1S46 
and 1S49; "In Memoriam," in 1S49 anc * 1S51 ; "Idyls of the King," 
in 1855, 1S58, and 1S61; "Enoch Arden," in 1S65; "The Holy Grail, 
and Other Poems," in 1867 and 1870; "Harold," in 1S77; "Becket," 
in 1879 and 18S5; "Tiresias, and Other Poems," in 18S6; and "Dem- 
eter, and Other Poems," in 1S90. In Hart's Manual of English 
Literature, one of Tennyson's poems is named "The Vision of Art," 
and a recent German cyclopedia makes him the author of "Tristam 
and Iseult." A newspaper account of the sale of Tennysoniana in 
London contains the queer bit of misinformation that Poems by Two 
Brothers "was published by Louth in 1826." These slips could have 
been easily avoided. The mystery hanging about the Laureate's life 
does not involve his works. 



30 MISTAKES CONCERNING TENNYSON. 

It is believed that the following list, which has been carefully 
verified, is correct both as to the titles and the dates of first publica- 
tion of all of Tennyson's books, viz: 

Poems by Two Brothers - - - 1S27 

Poems, chiefly Lyrical .... 1830 

Poems ----- 1832 (dated 1S33) 
Poems, 2 vols. ----- 1842 

The Princess - - - - - 1847 

In Memoriam - l &5o 

Maud, and Other Poems - - • 1855 

Idyls of the King ----- 1859 
Enoch Arden, etc. - 1S64 

The Holy Grail, and Other Poems - 1S69 (dated 1S70) 

The Window - - 1870 (privately printed 1867) 

Gareth and Lynette, etc. ... - 1872 

Queen Mary ----- 1S75 

Harold - 1876 (dated 1877) 

The Lover's Tale .... ^79 

Ballads, and Other Poems - 18S0 

The Cup and The Falcon - - - 18S4 

Becket --...- 1884 

Tiresias, and Other Poems ... 1885 

Locksley Hall Sixty Years After, etc. - - 1S86 

Demeter, and Other Poems ... 1889 

The Foresters .... - 1892 

The Death of GLnone, Akbar's Dream, and Other 

Poems ----- 1892 



TRANSLATIONS OF TENNYSON'S WORKS. 



GERMAN. 

Gedichte: iib. vonJW. Hertzberg. Dessau, 1853. Dresden, 
1S68. 

Ausgewdhlte Dichtungcn: iib. von A. Strodtmann (Bibliothek 
Klassiker in deutscher Uebertragung, Leipzig, 1865-70). 

Ausgewdhlte Dichiungen: iib. von H. A. Feldmann. Ham- 
burg, 1870. (Bib. ausl. Kiassiker). 

Ausgeivahlte Gedichte: iib. von M. Rugard. Elbing, 1872. 

In Memoriam: Aus dem Engl, nacb der 5. Aufl. Braunsch- 
weig, 1854. 

Freundes= . ~?age. Nach "In Memoriam," frei ubertragen von 
R. Waldmuller=Duboc. Hamburg, 1870. 

In Memoriam: iib. von Agnes von Bohlen. Berlin, 1S74. 

Maud: iib. von F. W. Weber. Paderborn, 1891. 

Konigsidyllen: iib. von W. Scholz. Berlin, 1867. 

Konigsidyllen: iib. von H. A. Feldmann. Hamburg, 1872. 

Konigsidyllen: iib. von C. Weiser (vols. 1817, 1S18 Universal 
= Bibliothek, Leipzig, 18*3-6). 

Enoch Arden: iib. von R. Schellwien. Quedhnburg, 1867. 

Enoch Arden: iib. von R. \Valdmiiller=Duboc. Hamburg, 
1868-70. 
Enoch Arden: iib. von F. W. Weber. Leipzig, 1S69. 

Enoch Arden und Godiva: iib. von H. A. Feldmann. Ham- 
burg, 1870. 

Enoch Arden: iib. von C. Hessel. Leipzig, 1874. (490 in 
Universal= Bibliothek). 

Enoch Arden: iib. von A. Strodtmann. Berlin, 1876. 

Enoch Arden: iib. von C. Eichholz. Hamburg, 1881. 

Enoch Arden: iib. von H. Griebenow. Halle, 1889. (Bib. 
der Gesammt= Litteratur). 

Enoch Arden: frei bearbeitet fiir die Jugend. Leipzig, 1SS8. 

Aylmers Feld: iib. von F. W. Weber. Leipzig, 1869. 

Aylmers Feld: iib. von H. A. Feldmann. Ebend, 1870. 

Harald: iib. von Albr. Graf Wickenburg. Hamburg, 1S79. 

Locksley Hall: iib. von F. Freiligrath— Locksley Hall sechzig 
Jahre spater: iib. von J. Feis. Hamburg, 1888. 

Locksley Hall sechzig Jahre sfater: iib von K. B. Esmarch. 
Gotha, 1888. 



DUTCH. 

De molenaars-dochter. Door A.J. de Bull. Utrecht, 1859. 
Henoch Arden. S. J. van den Bergh. Rotterdam, 18C9. 
Henoch Arden. J. L. Wertheim. Amsterdam, 1882. 
Vier Idyllen van Konig Arthur . Amsterdam, 1S85. 
Ginevra. J. H. F. Le Comte. Rotterdam, 18S5. [Illustrated]. 
Enid. D. E. M. van Herwerden. Zwolle, 1887. [Illustrated]. 

NORWEGIAN AND DANISH. 
Mai-Pestens Dronning. L. Falck. Christiania, 1855. 
Enoch Arden, A. Munch. Copenhagen 1863. 
Anna og Locksley Slot. A. Hansen. Copenhagen, 187''. 
Idyller om Kong Arthttr. A. Munch. Copenhagen, 1876. 

Kvstdromme og Aylmersjield. F. L. Mynster. Copenhagen 
1877. 

SWEDISH. 
Konung Arthur och hans riddare. Upsala, 1876. 
Elaine. A. Hjelmstjerna. 1877. 

BOHEMIAN. 
Enoch Arden. Primus Sobotka. Kceniggratz, 1S75. 

HUNGARIAN. 
Arden Enoch. Janosi Gustav. Buda-Pesth, 1881. 

FRENCH. 
Les Idylles du Roi. Francisque Michel. Paris, 1869. 
Enoch Arden. Lucien de la Rive. Paris, 1870. 
Enoch Arden. Emile Blemont. Paris, 1885. 
Enoch Arden. O.J.Richard. Poitiers, 1887. 
Enoch Arden. Xavier Marmier. Paris, 1887. 
Enoch Arden. M. 1' abbe R. Courtois. Paris, 1888. 
Enoch Arden. E. Duglin. Paris, 1890. 
Enoch Arden. Al. Beljame. Paris, 1892. 

Idylles et Poemes; Enoch Arden; Locksley Hall. Traduits 
en vers francais par A. Buisson du Berger. Paris, 1888. 

SPANISH. 
Enid and Elaine. L. Gisbert. 1875. 

Poem as de Alfredo Tennyson, Enoch Arden, Gareth y Lyn- 
ette, Merlin y Bibiana, etc. D. V. de Arana. Barcelona, 1883. 

ITALIAN. 

Idilli, Liriche, Miti e Leggende, Enoc Arden, Quadri Dram- 
tnatici. Carlo Faccioli. Verona, 1887. [Terza Edizione]. 
Enoc Arden. Angelo Saggioni. Padova, 1876. Firenze, 1885- 
II Primo Diverbio. E. Castelnuovo. Venice, 1886. 
La Prima Lite. P. T. Pavolini. Bologna, 1888. 

LATIN.* 
In Metnoriam. O. A. Smith. [Privately printed 1864]. 
Enoch Arden. W. Selwyn. London, 1867. 
/force Tennvsonianir: sive Eclogse e Tennysono Latine Red- 
dits A. J. Church. London and Cambridge, 1870. 



* Translations (London, 1861) contained " G^.none " and 
*' Godiva " in Latin hexameters, and "The Lotos-Eaters" in 
Greek, by Lord Lyttleton. 



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